As on today 254 SMEs are listed on BSE SME platform having a market capitalisation of Rs 21,000 crore. Nearly 46 companies have filed for listing, of which 20 SMEs have received approvals and we hope that 300 SMEs will get listed on our platform by December 2018," BSE SME head Ajay Thakur.

The BSE SME Platform hopes to list 300 companies on its platform by December this year, a senior exchange official said.

"As on today 254 SMEs are listed on BSE SME platform having a market capitalisation of Rs 21,000 crore. Nearly 46 companies have filed for listing, of which 20 SMEs have received approvals and we hope that 300 SMEs will get listed on our platform by December 2018," BSE SME head Ajay Thakur told PTI on the sidelines of panel discussion on 'International MSME day' today.

Despite the carnage in mid-cap scrips witnessed in the recent past, the SMEs showed lot of progress and the sector is growing rapidly. We are looking at more and more SME companies from tier II and III cities to come forward and list, Thakur said.

"MSMEs need to adopt disruptive thinking to take better advantage of the growth dividend opportunity," opined an expert panel at the Edelweiss SME Lending-BSE MSME Day.

Union minister Suresh Prabhu, in a message, pointed out that MSMEs are the backbone of the Indian economy, and are the largest contributors to employment, providing significant output and also help exports. Most importantly, they enable development of the Indian society inclusively.

The Maharashtra finance minister, Sudhir Mungantiwar said that the government will offer full support to SMEs to set up and grow their business in the state.

"The Indian SME sector has emerged as a highly vibrant and dynamic sector of the economy over the past few years. For enabling equity resource mobilisation through market participation, BSE launched "BSE SME" platform in March 2012," BSE managing director and CEO Ashishkumar Chauhan said.

The platform provides opportunity to entrepreneurs to raise equity capital for growth and expansion, and for investors to identify and invest in SMEs at an early stage, he said.